By Francois de Wet
Lunathi Nxele scored his sixth try of the SA Cup Competition securing another valuable bonus point for the Sanlam Boland Cavaliers in Kempton Park on Saturday.
The Cavas went down 43-26 to the Valke at the Barnard Stadium as crucial handling errors and missed tackles cost coach Hawies Fourie’s team dearly.
And after almost 30 minutes of the first half played the Cavas found themselves staring down the barrel of a gun with the scoreline reading 26-7 in favour of the Valke. After Valke right wing Valentino Wellman scored a brace while fullback Mbembe Payi and left wing Ezrick Alexander each dotted down for one as mistakes within the visitors’ defensive system got exposed.
Nxele opened the scoring for the Cavas when he pounced on lose ball to cross the whitewash for his first of two tries, Garth April added the extras.
Captain, Thurlow Marsh somehow managed to calm the chaos as his troops returned to their structures and slowed the game down with more direct play from the Kavas forwards.
Utilising their more powerful scrum and lineout mauls also worked a treat as locks Michael Benadie and hooker Sydney Tobias crossed the chalk to bring the Wellington team back into the contest with the score reading 26-21 at half-time.
But just as the Cavas looked to have come good, the errors crept back in after Benadie got sin-binned (yellow card) for pulling down a player in the lineout. With the Sanlam Boland Cavaliers down to 14 men, the Valke took full advantage as a penalty by flyhalf Keagan Fortune and a brace of tries by number eight Abulele Ndabambi put the result beyond doubt.
With time running out Nxele scored Boland’s fourth try after some good phase play and secured a bonus point that sees them hold on to fourth spot (8 points) in the race for qualification for the Currie Cup Premier Division.
SCORERS
BOLAND 26 (21) – Tries: Lunathi Nxele (2), Michael Benadie, Sydney Tobias. Conversions: Garth April (3)
VALKE 43 (26) – Tries: Valentino Wellman (2), Abulele Ndabambi (2), Mbembe Payi, Ezrick Alexander. Conversions: Keagan Fortune (5). Penalty: Fortune